Microbead
[3] Several other countries have also banned microbeads from rinse-off cosmetics, including Canada, France, New Zealand, Sweden, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.
[8] Low melting temperature and fast phase transitions make them especially suitable for creating porous structures in ceramics and other materials.
[9] The parameters for what qualifies as a microbead change subtly based on location and the corresponding legal jurisdiction; minor distinctions in the definition may be encountered from one country to another.
[10] For example, the U.S. official definition for a microbead, as per the Microbead-Free Waters Act 2015 laid out by Congress, is "any solid plastic particle less than 5 millimeters in size that was created with the intention of being used to exfoliate or cleanse the human body.
"[11] On the other hand, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), the governmental agency responsible for Canada's microbead ban, settled on a definition which includes only plastics with diameters between 0.5 microns and 2 millimeters; although a diameter range of 0.1 microns to 5 millimeters was initially proposed, the definition was revised after consultation with members of industry and meeting resistance from plastic manufacturers who claimed that many of their raw materials (for example, those needed to make bottles for soft drinks) would be covered by the ban, affecting their business unduly.
[10][12] While the intent clause in the American law leaves open a loophole for producers of other equally frivolous and environmentally destructive products to potentially exploit in the future—as long as their use case does not involve grooming or personal care—the Canadian law has already been criticized publicly for its overly restrictive nature, which could cripple its efficacy in practice; in response to the revised definition, concerned conservation groups (including the Sierra Club of Canada) have raised warnings about the law's wording, fearing that Canada may "become a dumping ground for [those] microbead-containing products" which are now banned in the United States.
[15][16] Sphericity and particle size uniformity create a ball-bearing effect in creams and lotions, resulting in a silky texture and spreadability.
[17] When microbeads are washed down the drain, they may subsequently pass unfiltered through sewage treatment plants and make their way into rivers and canals, resulting in plastic particle water pollution.
[24] A variety of wildlife, from insect larvae, small fish, amphibians and turtles to birds and larger mammals, mistake microbeads for their food source.
[25][26] Harmful chemicals thus transferred can include hydrophobic pollutants that collect on the surface of the water such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
Current methods for cleaning microplastics from the ocean are inefficient, unscalable, and economically infeasible, which serves to intensify the harms they pose.
[31] Burt's Bees and St. Ives use apricot pits and cocoa husks in its products instead of microbeads to reduce their negative environmental impact.
In 2016, the federal and state governments agreed to support a voluntary industry phase-out of microbeads in rinse-off personal care, cosmetic, and cleaning products.
[48] The New South Wales state government banned the supply of rinse-off personal care products containing microbeads, effective from 1 November 2022.
[52] Megan Leslie, Halifax Member of Parliament, presented a motion against microbeads in the House of Commons, which received "unanimous support" and was hoping for them to be listed under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act as a toxin.
[53] On June 29, 2016, the Federal Government of Canada added microbeads in the Canadian Environmental Protection Act under Schedule 1 as a toxic substance.
[71] At the federal level, the Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015 prohibits the manufacture and introduction into interstate commerce of rinse-off cosmetics containing intentionally-added plastic microbeads by July 1, 2017.
